Five Star Accommodations

Hotel Babylon
(Imogen Edwards-Jones and Anonymous, 2004)

5 Stars

I don’t often get the chance to stay in luxury hotels; I simply don’t have the cash. Honestly, when it comes to nights away, I usually find myself in somewhat grotty establishments, which, in Japan at least, means showers one cannot move in, an abundance of advertising for the bizarrely pixelated adult entertainments, and a distinct lack of cat-swinging space. And then of course there’s the capsules…

Last week, however, Manami and I were fortunate enough to find ourselves in the delightfully plush Sun Route Hotel just outside of the Tokyo Disney Resort. Clean, comfortable, and with one of the biggest baths I have come across in these parts of the world, the Sun Route was a wonderful respite from Japanese LeoPalace life.

But behind the luxury, there’s always the dark and degenerate underworld. The world that few of the punters ever get to see. Of course, having worked in what relished in calling itself a “four star hotel”, I have had some experience in the behind the scenes going on of this sector of the service industry.

In her shocking exposé of life in the hotel underbelly, Imogen Edwards-Jones introduces us to the fictional Hotel Babylon and its collection of rag-tag employees. With over ten years of bizarre anecdotes compressed into a twenty-four hour narrative, Hotel Babylon recounts a day in the life of head receptionist Charlie Edwards (played with effervescent charm by Max Beesley in the TV adaptation of the same name).

Juxtaposing within her ever-engaging tale the decadence of the hotel’s guests with the seedy, sneaking, yet somehow endearing staff, Edwards-Jones not only relishes in exposing the grim underbelly of hoteliering, but also manages to weave an addicting and intoxicating tale, filled with memorable characters and even more memorable revelations of the secret lives of the rich and the randy.

Hotel Babylon is a must read, not only for those in the industry, but also for anyone who’s ever stayed in a hotel, or indeed contemplating staying in one… A truly classic eye-opener.